China Embraces The Car

China has become the fastest-growing auto market in the world. As the automobile population surges, the country is beginning to face the effects on urban design, social geography, and environment that western nations have been dealing with for decades. “Bicycles are being gradually banned from Shanghai's larger streets to make way for the automobile, and old houses torn down to make space for wider roads and parking lots. Cars are changing how people shop, enabling the proliferation of big-box retail stores while expanding the confines of an enduring real estate boom.” Not surprisingly, suburban growth is booming and energy consumption is rising. Chinese planners now join many other nations around the world in coping with the challenges of a society becoming increasingly dependent on the automobile.